Focusing on how resource structuring mechanisms and managerial ties influence organizational ambidexterity of new ventures in emerging economy, this study explores the effects of resource structuring mechanisms (i.e., resource acquiring and resource accumulating) on organizational ambidexterity. It further examines the moderating effects of managerial ties, (i.e., ties with other firms and ties with the government) on the above relationships. Survey data from China¡¯s 202 new ventures demonstrates that the resource acquiring has an inverted U-shaped effect whereas the resource accumulating has a U-shaped effect on organizational ambidexterity in new ventures. Further, because of the traditional culture and economic transition characteristics, new ventures actively leverage managerial ties as key social relations to obtain special resources or nurture business transactions. We propose that ties with other firms and ties with government can differently strengthen the effects of acquiring and accumulating on organizational ambidexterity. The results support our propositions

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In dynamic environments, competitive advantage lies in developing useful knowledge from continuous streams of unstructured and ambiguous data. Frontline employees and certain groups of customers are often the first to sense emerging issues of strate-gic importance due to their experiential insights of the firm’s daily operations. Yet, they are rarely asked to provide updated information about critical issues. The present paper seeks to conceptually develop the notion of responsive innovation, by drawing on literary streams concerning collective sensing, strategic issue diagnosis and integra-tive strategy within a micro foundations perspective. It is posited that companies should root their innovation processes in the collective sensing of frontline-employees and customers that operate around the organizational periphery. This frames the con-cept of responsive innovation, where individuals engaged in the firm’s ongoing busi-ness activities collectively identify issues that central managers can resolve.

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The global economy is perpetually changing to a highly knowledge-based
economy in which services and especially knowledge-intensive services are
increasingly offshored (geographically relocated) to emerging market economies
such as India. This trend is interesting as for decades services had been
characterized as intangible, perishable, heterogeneous and inseparable from their
sources of origin making a geographic dispersion of service production and
consumption unimaginable. Thus, the geographic relocation of the services is
expected to infer organizational and operational reconfigurations also impacting
the service production. The thesis studies these reconfigurations by questioning:
how does offshoring impact on the production of services.
In order to capture the unique characteristics of services and provide a thorough
understanding of the phenomenon, detailed and dynamic analyses of activities and
actors through process perspectives are argued to be necessary. Process
perspectives allow studying relationships between actions and individual actors
from an organizational and operational angle. Two process perspectives are
applied in this thesis in three independent research papers. The first research paper
studies the offshoring process as a strategic and organizational change process that
leads to a misalignment of components of a services production system and
questions how this impact elicits a reconfiguration of the system.
The second and third paper investigates the offshored production process of
knowledge-intensive services with a focus on actors in the processes and their
activities. That is, the second paper questions how the increase of cognitive
distance between actors inferred by offshoring changes the production of the
services including costs and value outcomes. The third paper questions how
offshoring impacts client co-production, i.e. the transfer and co-creation of
knowledge, in a similarly designed service production process of knowledgeintensive
business services. Collectively, this research shows that process
perspectives on service offshoring are essential to study the impact of offshoring
on service production. It also allows an understanding on the importance of actors
and the causal links between them and activities.

The organizational capacity to cope with unexpected changes remains a fundamental challenge in strategy as global competition and technological innovation increase environmental uncertainty. Whereas conventional strategy-making often is conceived as a sequential linear process, we see it as a non-linear interaction between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms dealing with multiple actions taken throughout the organization over time. It is driven by intension but with a flexible balance between centralized (planned) and decentralized (spontaneous) activities where strategy formulation and implementation interact. We adopt the frame of complementary Yin-Yang elements and Zhong Yong balance to explain the time bound interaction between these opposing yet complementary strategy-making mechanisms where tradeoffs and synergies are balanced across hierarchical levels. The model outlines how the interaction between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms shape sustainable strategic responses.

We outline a strategic response capability framework drawing on cognitive neuroscience to explain stakeholder sensing and anticipations as essential input to environmental analysis. Stakeholders receive stimuli from ongoing interactions with the firm and thereby sense current environmental changes and form anticipations about future performance that provide early signals about needs for proactive strategic responses. Based on insights from literatures on cognitive neuroscience, marketing and strategy we develop a strategic response capability model driven by stakeholder sensing and anticipations with associated propositions. We discuss the implications of the proposed framework and suggest future research venues to further uncover the microfoundations of the firm’s strategic response capability.

We construe a conceptual framework for responding effectively to true uncertainty in the business environment. We drill down to the essential micro-foundational capabilities - sensing and seizing of dynamic capabilities - and link them to classical strategic issue management theory with suggestions on how to operationalize these essential capabilities. By definition true uncertainty represents environmental conditions that are hard to foresee, which can catch the unprepared by surprise while presenting opportunities to the conscious organization. We demonstrate that organizations relying on aggregation of stakeholder sensing and predictions of emergent strategic issues can positively influence the two capabilities and help the firm adapt in the face of uncertainty and unpredictability. Robust measures predicating performance based on information from key stakeholders involved in the firm’s core operations provide faster, more accurate, and updated insights about environmental developments identifying important strategic issues and solutions to them. This provides corporate decision-makers with a proactive tool in the quest for timely and effective strategic responses.

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Intercultural management broadly refers to the handling of cultural differences in businesses
and organizations. Although culture develops in all social groups, such as in firms, schools
and neighbourhoods, intercultural management often refers to cultures framed within national
and ethnic settings. Language, religion, family relations, work ethics and daily living are
some aspects of culture. These cultural manifestations reflect the community’s world views,
norms and values, and shape social behaviours and practices of members in the community.
The idea of “intercultural management” also suggests that cultural differences are sources of
miscommunication and misunderstandings. So in international business, intercultural
management is a daily activity that affects different operations, including localization of
services in a foreign market, offering local hospitality to foreign tourists, adapting one’s
negotiation style to overseas business partners, communication in an international work
environment and devising appropriate human resource services in overseas subsidiaries.

Purpose – The article brings attention to the importance of corporate values and concrete leadership enactment of those values as a necessary condition for effective risk management outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach – The content is based on practice-based research experiences supported by relevant literatures on risk governance and values-based management complemented with insights from case analyses and empirical studies.
Findings – The paper explains why formal risk management approaches have limitations and outlines how the presence of official policies and codes of conduct is insufficient to deal with dynamic and complex high-impact situations where strong core values heeded by the corporate leadership, in contrast, leads the way to better risk behaviors throughout the organization. Major disasters in British Petroleum over the past decade illustrate how a formal code of conduct failed to do the job when the leadership in reality gave first priority to profits at the expense of the stated environmental values. The prioritized code of the US Coast Guard is used to illustrate the circumstances where core values support effective crisis, disaster and risk management outcomes.
Originality/value – The paper goes against conventional wisdom of imposing tighter rules and regulations with formal controls as a panacea to cope with major disasters and shows why simpler means of guiding core values combined with delegation of responsibility to act under unexpected conditions is important in both private and public enterprise.

The organizational capacity to cope with unexpected changes remains a fundamental challenge in strategy as global competition and technological innovation increase environmental uncertainty. Conventional strategy-making is often conceived as a sequential linear process where we see it as a non-linear interaction between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms dealing with multiple actions taken throughout the organization over time. It is driven by intension but with a flexible balance between centralized (planned) and decentralized (spontaneous) activities. We adopt the principles of complementary Yin-Yang elements and Zhong Yong balance to explain the time bound interaction between these opposing yet complementary strategy-making mechanisms where tradeoffs and synergies are balanced across hierarchical levels.

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Organizational studies should address contemporary challenges of dealing effectively with the increasingly complex and dynamic business conditions. In this context we argue that structural features are linked to the corporate strategy process and affect the organization’s ability to respond to ongoing environmental changes. Sustainable performance arguably derives from integrative strategy-making where business opportunities are pursued as they emerge while being directed and coordinated through forward-looking analytics. This combination of decentralized responsiveness and central reasoning identifies a dynamic system of interacting fast and slow processes. The fast system observes and reacts to environmental stimuli and the slow system interprets events and reasons about future actions. When the fast and slow processes interact they form a dynamic adaptive system that allows the organization to respond to uncertain and changing conditions. We apply this model to interactions among individuals in organizations where ongoing experiential insights among dispersed operating managers interact with the forward-looking planning considerations around top-management. This identifies an organization that is able to react to frequent and often unpredictable changes and adapt.

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Cities are becoming alike. As a result, there is a rise of “copy-cat” cities. There
are many reasons for this, and this paper looks from the perspective of city branding: how
does place branding lead to the homogenization of cities? Using the case of Singapore,
and with references to Chinese cities, this paper highlights a number of accreditation
tactics in place branding campaigns. Accreditation is necessary because the brand needs
to seek credibility for the messages it sends. The types of accreditation used must also be
globally understood, so as to reach out to diverse world audiences.

Bakhtin was a literary theorist and was the widely acknowledged father of dialogism.
This working paper shows how Bakhtin and dialogism can be used to capture
complexity, ambivalence and ambiguity in the social world. In following the spirit of
dialogism, I will refer to my own research experiences in tourism and art worlds,
through which I will reveal my own inclinations – which can be read as biases – in
my research knowledge production. Through the concept of genre, heteroglossia,
polyphony and carnivalesque, dialogism allows social science researchers to identify
and structure the forces of order and disruption in society. There are methodological
consequences if one is to follow dialogism. Besides having to get deep into the
empirical field, dialogism challenges by raising questions on the manner we collect
data, the extent to which we can present a holistic analysis, the ways to engage
alternative analytical interpretations and the approach to address a researcher’s own
biases.

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The recent Bo Xilai affair has created strains in the Chinese political system
and has intensified the power struggle concerning the new leadership
appointments due to take place at the 18th Party Congress. The pressure on
the political system is intensified by a number of social phenomena such as
increased fragmentation, vested interests, corruption, social unrest, increased
income and social inequalities and a de facto reform stop since 2009. Some
scholars believe that we now see the end of ‘resilient authoritarianism’ and
that China either will experience a political and social collapse or move
towards a democratic system. However, developments since 1989 show the
regime’s amazing ability to revitalize its organizational capabilities and regain
its Mandate of Heaven. It may be too early to declare the Party over.

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Despite the celebration and promotion of the creative economy, there is still a “dark” side
to creativity. Creativity entails experimentation, chaos and failures. A creative space blends the
aesthetics with chaos, sleek design with experimentation, and economic development with
failed ideas. This case looks at the ambiguous and ambivalent interfaces of history in the
historical city of Melaka (also known as Malacca) in Malaysia.
History, by its definition, is a documentation of the past. Any historical documentation
can be contested and revised. This case will not engage in the debate on revisionist history.
Instead, it will show how history and heritage is negotiated and appropriated under present
circumstances in the historic city of Melaka. The re‐interpretation and revision of history is part
of the everyday creative response to changing circumstances. Such contemporary responses to
the past, however unclear and acrimonious, are the essence of a creative place.

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Inderstanding the Dual Processes of the Human Mind and Human Interaction in Strategy Making

Juul Andersen, Torben; Fredens, Kjeld(Frederiksberg, 2013)

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Abstract:

Modern cognitive science identifies a dynamic system of interacting fast and slow processes as essential to human thinking. The fast system observes and reacts to environmental stimuli and the slow system interprets events and reasons about future actions. When the fast and slow processes interact they form a dynamic system that enables individuals to respond effectively to changing conditions. We project this dynamic perspective onto human interaction in organizations where observations and experiential insights gained by employees and operating managers are linked to forward-looking planning considerations that take place around the top-management echelons. This identifies the responsive organization that is able to observe and react to frequent and often abrupt environmental changes and thereby adapt organizational activities to the changing reality.

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All of the three major theories of the firm, i.e., the transaction cost theory, knowledge-based theory and the entrepreneurship theory, offer some insightful analyses of the nature of the firm. However, they all have limitations and weaknesses in answering the fundamental question of the existence of the firm. In addition, they are all partial due to their particular focus on the multifaceted phenomenon of the firm. We argue that it is necessary and sufficient to develop a comprehensive yet integrative theory of the firm that combines the three competing yet complementary logics. Toward this end, we propose an aspirational community theory of the firm (ACT) as a candidate theory by conceptualizing the firm as an aspirational community, the core of which is a group of like-minded people sharing similar or same aspiration/vision. To explain the comparative advantage of the firm vis-à-vis market, we make a distinction between contractual labor and aspirational labor, the former being defined as services provided by a laborer in fulfillment of a contract while the latter as services provided by a laborer in pursuit of an aspiration; and argue that firms exist because while the market may be effective and efficient for allocating contractual labor it is less effective and efficient than the firms for allocating aspirational labor.

This article theorizes a new way to predict firm performance based on aggregation of sensing among frontline employees about changes in operational capabilities to update strategic action plans. We frame the approach in the context of first- and second-generation prediction markets and outline its unique features as a third-generation prediction market. It is argued that frontline employees gain deep insights when they execute operational activities on an ongoing basis in the organization. The experiential learning from close interaction with internal and external stakeholders provides unique insights not otherwise available to senior management. We outline a methodology to agglomerate these insights in a performance barometer as an important source for problem finding and innovation.